MW02 tales

Nobody knows rightly when MW02 was built ,or by whom(maybe someone here does).Its first appearance is behind the last train from Santa Fe September 1 ,1941. It is behind the train in a photo taken at Embudo that day . At that time it didn't have the the hood on it ,and may have been a four-wheeler . Though it was for official use ,it was used for fire patrol in the last years .About 1964 ,it rear-ended a train in Monero Canyon .The train was experience slow going ,and the fire crew was relying onm "smoke signals" . After an extended visit with Felix Gomez at his great old general store at Gato , the crew put the "pedal to the metal", but was surprised as it burned around a sharp curve to find the train stopped to remove a rock . Since the fire crew was going too fast, and there was no flagman to protect the rear of the train ,there was plenty of blame to go around. Also as many know ,railcars can't stop om a dime . Legend has it that the unit was repaired secretly , so no one was fired .Railroaders ,after all ,generally protect their own . It developed some problem after the repair where the rear axle would work loose , and derail .After such a trip ,I believe it sat at Oxford siding till abandonement . The Railroad Commission kept it running in the early 1970s , and Dan Pyzel ,who had Leo's present job ,worked on it .It stranded Dan one night at Toltec Siding , and I don't believe it ran again after that . Since it was the Commission's property ,it sat in the engine house in Chama till its present repair .